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The Izmit Bay bridge, a 3km-long suspension bridge crossing of Izmit Bay, Turkey is constructed in one of the most seismically active places in the world. The site spans the plate boundary between the Anatolian plate on the south and the Eurasian plate on the north, and, as such, has the potential to experience significant earthquakes associated with the relative motion accomodated on the North Anatolian Fault (source of the 1999 Izmit and Duzce earthquakes). Characterizing the seismotectonic setting, potential fault locations, as well as other geohazards was a critical component for the project concessionaire to finace the project and obtain meaningful bids for bridge design and construction. Given the Build Operate Transfer (BOT) funding mechanism, executing this work in the least possible time was critical to the concessionaire's financing scheme. Fugro was retained to provide geotechnical, geological, seismological evaluations for the project region, and to generate criteria for contractors to develop reliable designs and bids. A sophisticated and extensive site investigation program of the Izmit Bridge was designed to address the uncertainties associated with these issues with emphasis in characterizing the fault setting at the third longest bridge in the world. Fugro also performed probabilistic fault displacement hazard anaylses to estimate surface displacements associated with direct fault rupture during an earthquake on the North Anatolian Fault. Subsequently, a numerical analyses techniques was developed and adopted to evaluate the fault rupture-induced demands on a bridge pier foundation in terms of displacements and rotations.

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